Lawsuit Aims To End Neighborhood Eyesore

Seminole County officials on Wednesday sued one of the most chronic code violators in county history, hoping finally to clean up his yard full of airplane replicas, scrap metal and other junk.

The county seeks foreclosure on Alan Wayne Davis' personal property on Alpine Street near Altamonte Springs so it can collect on more than $215,000 in code-enforcement fines that have stacked up since January 2001.

"We've run out of options to get things done," county Planning Director Don Fisher said.

Davis has angered neighbors and exasperated county officials by keeping junk in front of his home. He has defied all previous efforts to clean up, responding to challenges by placing even more debris in his front yard.

By filing the foreclosure suit at state Circuit Court in Sanford, county officials hope to take ownership of the property, including the junk, and auction it off to help satisfy the lien. Code-enforcement fines continue to accumulate at $500 a day.

The county itself cannot foreclose on Davis' home because it is protected by state homestead laws.

The lawsuit also seeks an injunction to prevent Davis from putting more junk in his yard and to prevent him from threatening any county employees or citizens.

In a Sept. 5 letter to county Commissioner Dick Van Der Weide, Davis accused commissioners of criminal activity and wrote, "One of these days, one of these criminals is going to get shot."

In an April letter to Circuit Judge Alan Dickey, Davis wrote that he was protected by the Bill of Rights. He added: "People have died for those rights and others will kill for them. This is serious business; take it seriously!"

The county's lawsuit, which also names Davis' wife, Aileen S. Davis, catalogs the debris that has piled up on the property.